With all due respect, the most intriguing words spoken at the finish line on Alpe d'Huez after a hellacious afternoon of racing at the Tour de France didn't come from defending champion Chris Froome or current race leader Geraint Thomas -- Team Sky teammates and co-protagonists in Thursday's drama -- but from a man who had close encounters with both of them on the final climb.
When Froome launched what initially looked like a vintage attack on the small group that included Dutch star Tom Dumoulin, the Team Sunweb leader and 2017 Giro d'Italia champion reeled it in. When Dumoulin tried to ride away a short time later, Thomas marked the move.
Thomas eventually hit the gas and took Stage 12 to become the first British rider ever to win on Alpe d'Huez, and the first competitor since Lance Armstrong (2004) to do so with the yellow jersey on his back.
Dumoulin said he didn't have to push his physical limits to catch Froome and confirmed that Thomas, now 1 minute, 39 seconds up on Froome, was strongest on an "absolutely mental" day of racing. As to what might happen next, Dumoulin is limited to speculation, as are we all.
In the jousting that preceded the final sprint to the summit, Dumoulin noted that Froome attacked while Thomas stayed on Dumoulin's wheel. "That's good to know for the future," Dumoulin said. He sounded sure, but one of Sky's advantages is that as long as Thomas and Froome stay 1-2, they'll keep their rivals guessing about their chess tactics.
Dumoulin is one of a handful of riders left who could roil that strategy. The spoilers' group dwindled further with the news that 2014 Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali of Italy is unable to continue. The Bahrain-Merida leader remounted after a fall and came in seventh, retaining his fourth place in the overall standings. But he left the mountain by ambulance, in pain, and was diagnosed with a vertebral fracture.
Nibali's departure follows those of other pre-race favorites Richie Porte of Australia (BMC), who crashed out in Stage 9, and Colombia's Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), who did not start Thursday morning, hampered by injuries he sustained in a crash, also during Stage 9.
With the Alps receding in the rearview and the Pyrenees still several days away in this year's clockwise route, the only thing that seems less than inevitable about Sky is which tip will wind up on the end of the spear.
Otherwise, the team's inexorable quality was on full display, from the chase-down of a 40-mile solo breakaway by the Netherlands' Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) to the astonishingly poised work done on Alpe d'Huez by 21-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal, who paced Thomas and Froome and covered would-be attackers.
Yet this was still one of the more compelling Alpe d'Huez tilts in recent memory. The climb's long history, picturesque switchbacks and frenzied crowds have made it one of the most revered theaters of the sport, yet stage victories there can and often have been all but cemented by one lethal strike on the steep gradient near the base, so it was refreshing to see overall contenders clawing at each other in the final couple of miles. Another throwback feature of the Alpe, fan hostility, made an unfortunate appearance as Froome was shoved but stayed upright.
The next truly decisive day could come on Stage 17, an outlier at just 40 miles long with a summit finish on the Col du Portet. It's the shortest stage in 30 years, a deliberately disruptive move on the part of Tour organizers pushing back against predictability.
Dumoulin is just 11 seconds shy of Froome in third place, and said he might have done better in the leaders' sprint Thursday if he hadn't made a shifting mistake just before. The field strings out after him. Only five other riders, counting Nibali, are within four minutes of Thomas: Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, who flew under radar Thursday thanks to the exploits of his LottoNL-Jumbo teammate Kruijswijk; Romain Bardet of France; Sky defector Mikel Landa; and Kruijswijk himself.
"I think we have two leaders," Bernal said in the immediate aftermath of the stage, then quickly corrected himself and said he wasn't sure. Thomas has the yellow jersey and "we respect him for that," Bernal said of the two-time Olympic track cycling gold medalist. Froome has six Grand Tour titles, including the past two in the Giro and the Vuelta a Espana.
Thomas maintained that Froome was still "the man" who knows how to win three-week races. Froome said nothing at all publicly. Facebook would doubtless call Sky's dynamic complicated. Bernal dubbed it "difficult," but smiled as he said it. It's a nice tangle to have, and barring illness or injury, there won't be much pressure to unravel it until the middle of next week.